The present invention relates to the field of integrated circuits; more specifically, it relates to methods to form conductive thin film structures on integrated circuits without using masks to form the structures.
The formation of thin film structures is difficult to integrate into damascene technology because of metal dishing during the chemical-mechanical polish step of the damascene process causing thickness variation in the conductive thin film structure across the chip and wafer. While subtractive etch processes may be used to form conductive thin film structures, such an approach requires additional etch masks and adds additional cost. Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to eliminate the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.